A conventional disk loading apparatus will be described with reference to the accompaying drawings.
FIG. 1 is a plan view of a mechanism for opening and closing a tray of the conventional disk loading apparatus. Reference numeral 9 denotes a tray driving motor and 5 denotes a tray. A rack 5b of the tray 5 is in mesh with a pinion 9a of the tray driving motor 9. Reference numerals 5c and 5d denote protrusions formed on the side surface of the tray 5 for serving to operate a tray position detector switch 10.
FIG. 2 is a side view of a mechanism for moving up and down a deck member 7. Reference numeral 6 denotes a base. Grooves 6a formed on both sides of the base 6 serve as a guide of movement of the tray 5 by slidably supporting projections 5g of the tray 5. On the other hand, a pin 7a provided on the deck member 7 for reading signals from a compact disk (referred to as CD, hereinafter) is put in a groove 6b so that the deck member 7 pivots about the pin 7a. Reference numeral 5e denotes a concave portion on which the CD is to be placed, and 5h denotes a hole for serving to prevent a turntable 7c from interfering with the tray 5 when the deck member 7 is moved upwards. Reference numeral 11 denotes a lifting motor the driving force of which is transmitted through a belt 2 to a lifting cam 12. The lifting cam 12 is formed in its side face with an inclined groove 12a with which a pin 7b provided on the deck member 7 is brought into engagement. Reference numeral 13 denotes a lift detector switch which serves to detect whether or not the deck member 7 has been raised to a predetermined position.
With the above construction, when it is intended to load and play a CD, by putting the CD on the concave portion 5e of the tray in the first place and then driving the motor 9, the tray 5 is made to move in the direction of an arrow a shown in FIG. 1. Therefore, the protrusion 5d operates the position detector switch 10 to thereby stop the motor 9. Subsequently, the motor 11 is driven to rotate the lifting cam 12 so that the pin 7b is caused to run up the inclined groove 12a and, hence, the deck member 7 is caused to pivot in the direction of an arrow g shown in FIG. 2. When the turntable 7c of the deck member 7 is positioned in the hole 5h and the CD is lifted from the tray concave portion 5e until the upper end portion of the deck member 7 comes into contact with the detector switch 13, the detector switch 13 operates to stop the motor 11 and then the turntable 7c is rotated to play the disk.
When it is intended to take out the CD which has been finished playing, the motor lifting cam 12 is rotated in the direction reverse to the direction in which the cam 12 is rotated at the time of starting to paly the CD, so that the deck member 7 is caused to pivotted in the direction of an arrow h shown in FIG. 2. The motor 9 is also rotated in the direction reverse to the direction in which the motor 9 is rotated at the time of starting to play so as to make the tray 5 move in the direction of an arrow b shown in FIG. 1, thereby permitting to take out the CD.
However, with such conventional construction, it is necessary to use two motors since the movement of the tray and the upward and downward movement of the deck member depend on the independent separate driving systems, resulting in the problems of cost and reduction of size of the mechanism. Further, since it is necessary in connecting the respective movements to adjust timing delicately in consideration of the scatter in mechanical loads, in order to reduce the speed of the tray as low as possible at each end of the opening and closing operation of the tray so as to improve the quality of the movement, it is also necessary to take measures in respect of the electric circuit so as to keep the rotational frequency of the motor under complicated servocontrol.